ART GALLERIES SCHUBERT

Born, Hobart 1879 - Died 1952

At the age of 50, Tom Garrett gave up a steady job to devote himself fully to his art. This would have been an adventurous decision even at the best of times given the difficulty most 50 year olds could expect to encounter in embarking on a new career.

Garrett made this career change in 1929. There is no way of knowing, in any case, if Garrett would have maintained his job as a commercial artist with the Depression around the corner. However, based on our knowledge of the economic strife that was to engulf the world in the next few years his decision could have been disastrous.

Tom Garrett's first one-man show, held in Sydney in the year he turned to painting full time, was, according to fellow artist an dart dealer Rubery Bennett who held the exhibition, 'a howling success'.

Garrett's first exhibition was held in April 1929, on 6th July, 1929 a a headline in the Melbourne Herald read 'Slump in Art', painters find it harder to sell their works'.

At the annual exhibition held by the Society of Artists in Sydney 1930, no work was accepted for exhibition with a price tag of more than twenty five pounds. When the dealer John Young organised an exhibition at David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, 1931, times were so bad that it was decided not to price any of the works. Potential buyers were asked simply to make offers on any works.

In a headline of it's art review for the year Labour Daily of 28th December, 1931 proclaimed "Lean year for Art in 1931". The Art Market finally emerged from the Depression in April 1937 when David Jones' Art Gallery sold two thousand pounds worth of Arthur Streeton paintings. In those intervening years when art buyers were extremely elusive, plunged into economic strife. Tom Garrett's ability to attract a pricing his works moderately, Tom Garrett perfected a style which had a special appeal for depression audiences. "A touch of colour, an inviting shadow, a mysterious deep, the allure of one mind to point to yet another light beyond" - this is how Rubery Bennett summarised the work of Tom Garrett.

Garrett looked at the world in soft focus through an art that had evolved from Corot. His was a tranquil rustic world ever aware of the approaching city. He achieved effect with watercolour and the extremely difficult art of the monotype - a medium particularly suitable for the effects he sought to convey. As early as 1933, the artist John Banks could report that Tom Garrett was making his mark. In the catalogue of the exhibitions at Sedon Galleries in Melbourne that year, Banks wrote of Garrett's "brilliant success" and said it was no surprise that his works were making their way into "the great collections". That most eminent of collectors Howard Hinton, was among his strongest admirers.

Garrett continued to exhibit until 1951 and died in the following year. His work continued to have a following through the artist's later years, but fell out of favour with the advent of modern criticism and the focus on contemporary art until the 1970's.

The revival of interest that has since taken place was largely due to the recognition of the artist's individual talent.

Added to the present appeal of his work as a spiritual haven in angst ridden times should be the following he deserves as a conservationist. Garrett drew attention to the beauty of an old barn, a bent tree, a quiet corner of the bush, an old part of the city, the romance of the past.

Collectors must be heartened by the fateful decision the artist made in departing from the family tradition which would have him an accountant or merchant, and that, he decided on a full time career with the brush.

Studies: Hobart, Hutchins School

He moved to Melbourne in 1900 and read for Holy Orders with the Anglican Church until about 1929 when he became a professional painter